In Jachymov, a town in the Czech Republic, there are spas where visitors are offered baths in radioactive water for a considerable sum of money.
The hills surrounding Jachymov are full of uranium. In the uranium ores from Jachymov, Marie Curie discovered radium at the end of the 19th century, but it took until the end of World War II and the Soviet Union for uranium mining to take off. At the peak of this mining frenzy during the 1950s, 12 mines were operating at full capacity in and around the town, and the miners were mostly political prisoners like Zdenek Mandrholec, reports the BBC.
Zdenek Mandrholec is an 87-year-old who spent 7 years as a political prisoner forced to dig uranium ore in the mines of Jachymov so that the Cold War nuclear arms race could continue.
– Whether it was sunny or snowy, I remember that the temperature inside was always the same. Always hot, says Mandrholec, adding that the Soviets did whatever they wanted with them.
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Used as easily replaceable labor, the prisoners were exposed to radioactive material with no protection other than overalls and face masks. Accidents were common, and it was not unusual for an underground tunnel to collapse on one of the prisoners working in the mine.
– I remember that the ceiling once collapsed on a man and buried him in one of the vertical shafts. We dug up his remains piece by piece for days, says Mandrholec with a lump in his throat, wiping away tears.
The mines where Mandrholec worked were closed several decades ago. All but one. But there is no longer any search for uranium there. They are looking for radioactive water.
At the entrance to Jachymov stands a huge white building, the Radium Palace, a four-star hotel and spa. Inside, wealthy guests stroll on red carpets in white robes. Some of them have come there for treatment. Very alternative treatment. A bath in water with radioactive radon, a byproduct of uranium. This water has been flowing through the mines for years where political prisoners once served their sentences.
Although splashing in radioactive water does not seem like a great idea, doctors working at the Radium Palace spa claim otherwise.
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– There are two clinical benefits of bathing in radon water: first, it has an anti-inflammatory effect. We know it reduces inflammation. Secondly, it has an analgesic effect, meaning it acts as a pain reliever with effects similar to morphine, but with effects that last much longer, explains Jindrich Masik, the chief physician at the spa.
– There are different levels of radiation. For working with patients, we use the level of radiation that suits them best, which are very small doses, the doctor explains.
Visitors flock to the spa with various ailments – from neurological issues to arthritis and gout – in search of relief from the symptoms that plague them. Vaclav Pucelik suffers from chronic joint inflammation and is one of Masik’s patients who has been coming to the spa for treatment for 30 years.
– Nothing alleviated my pain until someone recommended that I try a radon bath. Since then, I come regularly every year, says Pucelik.
The therapy at the spa lasts 24 days, and Pucelik is already a familiar face to the staff of the luxury hotel. As he walks through the hallways, he greets everyone around him and cheerfully pushes open the wooden and glass doors plastered with warning signs for radioactivity. On the other side of the door, nurses walk in white coats between hospital partitions, each containing a tub resembling a jacuzzi, where patients splash in radioactive water.
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It is hard to avoid the contrast between the painful past and the extravagant present. But this is something that the staff and visitors of the spa do not concern themselves with. Mandrholec has no complaints about the spa profiting from the mines where he was enslaved, nor about the patients who come here to find relief in this unusual sanatorium after all their traditional treatment options have failed.
– It is a real shame that this material was not used earlier, for the Czech Republic. If it had been, we could have been like Switzerland, we could have had so many highways and schools, we could have been much more developed. Instead, everything went for free to the Soviet Union, while the Czechs had to slave for it, says Mandrholec.
Sitting in the large lobby of the hotel, Pucelik and Mandrholec, a patient and a political prisoner, extend their hands to each other and introduce themselves. In the handshake, the painful past and the extravagant present of the mines in Jachymov meet.
